


Thirty

by Cluegirl



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-19
Updated: 2010-08-19
Packaged: 2017-10-11 04:14:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/108262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cluegirl/pseuds/Cluegirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Betrayal within betrayal, and one breathless moment when everything changes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thirty

"Our Lord," Lucius said, "is walking into a trap."

Careful not to move, I flicked my eyes at the closed, warded study door, the heavy-draped window, then back to Lucius Malfoy's hair, falling in a flawless ivory veil over his royal blue evening robes. "I fear you may be right," I allowed, "I warned him against this foolishness, but he laughed at me and called me a doom crow."

Lucius snorted. "No doubt he did."

Silence then; long and aching -- the damning kind, that begs to be filled up with fidgeting and excuses. I filled my mouth with Chartreuse instead, gluing the nervous words down to my tongue with the sharp, green liquor. My wand was cold against my wrist. I wondered if his was as well.

After a moment, Lucius put down his snifter -- Brandy and Benedictine, though Merlin only knew how he could drink that cloying stuff -- and turned to me with a sigh. "And, no doubt your ever-so-slightly condescending warning has made it impossible for anyone else to dissuade our Lord of his plans," he said, coming around the desk to perch elegantly on the nearest corner. The brilliant green lining and gold embroidery of his robe made me think of a peacock. But I didn't smile at the image; it wouldn't do to forget that peacocks hunt cobras, after all.

"What have you poisoned him with?"

I did not choke. I did not freeze. But I also did not answer, and the glitter in Lucius's arctic eyes told me it was all the confirmation he needed. "You are too careful to trust such treachery to bumbling aurors or a teenaged hero's silly wand waving, my dear old doom crow." I opened my mouth, but he raised a hand and stilled my words. "It doesn't matter. Whatever you gave him, it's sure to be deadly and irreversible, and only you could manage an antidote for it anyway."

He looked down and a wry smile twisted the corner of his mouth as he shook his head. "I do wish you'd told me, Severus." I raised my eyebrow, which made him laugh. "Silly, of course, to think you'd trust me with such a grand undertaking as this, but still -- we might have helped each other, had we but known."

That finally startled the words out of me. "You? Whatever for?"

"Beyond the fact that he is irrevocably mad, obsessed with a sixteen year old boy, and rapidly degenerating into a caricature?" Lucius shrugged, "The money. This time Voldemort's no wealth of his own to bankroll his imperial dreams. That means that those of us who did manage to keep our fortunes intact while he was busy not dying will soon find ourselves hemorrhaging from our Gringott's vaults unless we took action."

"But you, Severus," he caught my eye, drawing me into that crystalline gaze, making me imagine I could see respect glimmering under the icy blue, "You managed this all on your own; none of the others had the slightest idea what you were doing." He reached for my face, and once I'd recovered from my involuntary flinch, ran his warm fingers along my cheekbone, then down to the hard line of my clenched jaw. "They'll go to Azkaban never knowing who put them there. Impressive, that."

"Thank you." What else could I say? His fingers swept up to my lips; soft, dry touches that made me want to shiver. Or perhaps that was the threat lurking behind his compliments.

"I've no choice now, you understand," Lucius went on, tracing up the other side of my jaw, fingers rolled over, so I could feel the scrape of my stubble against his flawless manicure.

This would be it then; one or both of us. Narcissa and Draco would go to his funeral, but I wondered who, if anyone, would go to mine.

"I suppose you think you don't," I said. The liquor dregs in my cordial glass caught the light with the precise colour of the killing curse. All that held me back was that touch on my face. Lucius didn't have his wand in hand. I wouldn't kill him unarmed. Not him.

"Oh, no supposition, dear Severus," he slithered off the desk and into my lap in one liquid movement, managing to pin my wand hand under his knee as he straddled my legs. I stiffened, but he gripped my chin bruisingly and turned my face up to his. The ivory hair slid down like a curtain around us. "You've forced my hand with this, I'm afraid. I'm quite vexed with you, really," he leaned closer, breath sweet and potent against my lips, "Have you any idea what a time I'll have managing to kill Voldemort just before the aurors close in?"

A laugh escaped me; pure startlement. Lucius caught it in his mouth and swallowed it deep, then thrust his tongue in as if seeking more. I sighed, relaxing into his grip and his kiss, coiling my tongue around his as he delved past my teeth. The taste of his B&amp;B sparked oddly with my Chartreuse, but in the hot slide of lips, the click of teeth and rasp of chins one against the other, the flavors soon resolved into pure fire.

His fingers carded up into my hair, both hands dragging my lank, greasy shield away, exposing me mercilessly as my hand went numb under his knee. I gave up a moan, and took one from him in trade; urgent, needy. Desire braided up my spine in a violent shiver, and I dimly heard my glass shatter as I abandoned it in favor of a grip on Lucius's arse, trembling tight and high under the lush velvet.

"Severus," he breathed against my lips, "you know I shall never trust you again, don't you?"

"Mmn," I agreed, reclaiming his lips and sliding him forward on my lap until his straining erection pressed firmly into my own. "Never trusted me to begin with."

"Mmm... No, I suppose I didn't." I felt his smile against my lips, before he pulled away again, "Only now, I have your true measure," I hummed appreciatively as he trailed damp, hot kisses along the ridge of my cheek, "and I will not underestimate you again, my doom crow," he licked my ear, but it was the unspoken menace that made me shiver.

"Have you not had enough of war, Lucius?" I whispered as his hand ghosted down my ribs.

And again, I felt the smile, this time against my throat. Then he pulled away to regard me with a haughty sneer that was somehow un-diminished by the rosy gleam of his thoroughly kissed lips. "Perhaps, Severus," he said, dragging his nails up my chest so the wool caught and mumbled under the pressure, "but I believe it serves me well to leave you uncertain."

And with that, he stood, swirling away in his peacock robes, leaving me straining against the absence of his weight. My wand hand tingled sharply as the blood began to return.

"You'd better be on your way, Severus," Lucius said, throwing wide his study doors with a feline grin, "Early start in the morning -- well," he made a show of correcting himself as I struggled up out of the sofa and straightened my tented robes, "for me, at any rate; I rather think you had better not show up to the raid tomorrow, don't you agree?"

And what could I do but laugh at that?

I did, however, pause on the threshold to claim another kiss from my newest enemy. He surrendered it with good will, and a parting grope that bid fair to keep me hard all the way back to my dungeon.

It was only after I had apparated to Hogwarts gates and begun the long walk back to the castle that I noticed the added weight in my pocket. Stopping to investigate, I dug out a shrunken purse, packed solid and bulging with miniaturized coins. I thumbed the catch, and the moon revealed gleaming silver within.

I knew without counting how many there would be.


End file.
